Free Website, Printing and Graphic Design Tips

I firmly believe an image can “make or break” your web page design. Use photos that are clear, sharp and eye-catching. You want to evoke a feeling in your viewers. Motivate them to buy or browse further into your website. Images with electric lines running through them or other unrelated items aren’t going to get the results you want.
When taking a photo look carefully at what’s in your viewfinder and change your position to get the best image possible. Unrelated items in the background or forefront of your image are distracting and unprofessional. Crop out unwanted areas. Take note of how the available light is “falling” on your subject. Use your flash during daylight to fill in shady areas.
Make sure the object you want people to see is large enough to make an impact. If you’re selling surfboards you don’t want 80 percent of your photo to be the skyline and beach. Bring the surfboard up to the front of the picture! Zoom in on the surfboard either when taking the image or when cropping it for your website. You can keep some beach and sky but the board is the main focal point and should be sized accordingly. Visitors shouldn’t have to “try” to see portions of your photos.
Keep your main subject matter sharp, clear and up front. Reduce clutter and make the photo  large enough to compliment your layout and be easily seen. Take these few extra steps and your images will have more impact and your site will look a thousand percent more attractive and professional

Here are a couple of hint to help you make your website even more “crawlable” by the search engines. Why? Because it’s the key to better search engine return ranking. You want people to find your site!
1. Spiders like html and lots of content related text. Keep the Flash but don’t go all Flash and use alt tags on your pictures. Make sure you have enough html and content related text to keep the spiders happy.
2. Include a sitemap in your website. Spiders love a good sitemap and ifyou’re not sure how to set it up, Google will give you all the help you need. Take a look at their Webmaster Tools.
3. Update you site. Putting up a website and never updating it is the wrong approach. The spiders want to crawl new stuff and your visitors want new reasons to return. Do yourself a favor and make the time to update your website.